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We had a milestone weekend, moving in to the (almost) completed house. Promised kids & wife that we'd be in for the return to school. Still a long list of jobs to do (including commissioning the MVHR, boiler & heating) and all the exterior finishing but interior is more or less complete. As a couple with no prior experience, we've pulled off a 400m2 passive (ish) house with basement and garage with relatively few major issues once we got started. More or less stuck to budget (although what's left is rapidly evaporating!) Couldn't have done it without all the advice and support from this forum and its predecessor - so a huge thanks to everyone who has helped one way or another. Somehow we decided to give up booze for September so will need to wait another few weeks before popping the champagne (or climbing into the bath with a bottle of red ). Currently sitting in a furniture shop just outside Copenhagen overseeing delivery of our new dining room to UK, but that's another story...

Be VERY careful with your lighting design.

Hi guys, I finally found you, was so happy when I found the link in a blog post. I wondered if I could have input regarding our plans, some fresh eyes and experience is what we need. On the old forum I talked about how I was looking to move a wee bit closer to home and about having a husband who only cared about his shed. We'll we've managed to tick both our boxes. Our plot looks onto Ben Nevis/ Nevis range and hubby is getting an even bigger shed. Planning has just been resubmitted, as the house that was originally planned was far too big for our needs and was causing difficulty with shed location. The external look of the house is exactly what we want, but we're just not 100 % about inside and would love some input. The house is not a forever home, we will be selling in around 5 years to come back to Aberdeenshire. I think that's causing the problem, as we are trying to think about what it needs for selling as opposed to what we want. I'd love to have a bigger master bathroom and a walk in wardrobe but I'm just not sure how to achieve it with the window placement. Our builder has said that we can change anything internally but the externals are not negotiable now planning has gone in. I've already asked if we can make the family bathroom bigger and eat into bedroom 1's en suite. I've also asked is it possible to squeeze a shower into the bathroom at the utility so said dirty husband can get cleaned without trampling oil through the house! What do you thinks best for selling? Having 5 bedrooms plus study, or 4 bedrooms plus a study and make a massive master? It just seems a bit to excessive to have that amount of room, but I would love to have a bath in my master so I can have one without waking our easily woken children. My husbands delighted with his shed plans and thinks the house plans do what they need to, but I thought you guys might pick on stuff we aren't thinking about. Thanks

Below is a picture of ours, they are 25mm Merlyn trays and either Simpsons Or Merlyn 10mm screens with a little flappy bit to help with the spray. They are solid and work really well

Our requirement is either (preferably) a wet rom, if not a large low profile shower tray, with fixed frameless glass panels. Having had a variety of hinged or sliding, framed glass doors before, we no longer want frames, hinges, runners or anything else that can go mankey, just simple unframed fixed glass panels that might stand a chance of being able to be kept clean. And NOTHING that relies on any form of sealant to seal said glass panels.

United Utilities seen to be singing from the same hymn sheet as Tennants posted up if you look here: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.unitedutilities.com/documents/Excavation_option_agreement.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwip4rXdtPvOAhWoL8AKHb7mBZAQFgggMAE&usg=AFQjCNHGRa0zwOSRAdOzH8UAH1V4LB3A-A

Congratulations. I'm counting down the weeks until we can get into ours and say goodbye to the rental we are in...

Yup. The little ones my mates use for charging the RC cars on the rally cross days out. This kind of thing .

Earthwool is a PITA. It is so uncivilised handling it. We used Rockwool Flexislab 50mm x 1200 x 400mm batts in both our stud partitions and in our intermediate floors. Still not good to handle but a lot better than earthwool and its a lot easier to cut and is self supporting. This is less than current BRegs for the ceiling insulation, but to be honest our BInsp didn't seem to be worried about it anyway. The pre boarding out photos don't show any obvious difference between 50mm and 100mm.

We used 100mm acoustic earth wool with 15mm plasterboard and a skim finish as our finished walls

Building Regs require 'mineral wool' (this is glass or stone wool) min 10 kg/m3, 25mm (min) in partitions and 100mm (min) in intermediate floors. Density in walls is normally higher to give product mechanical strength for vertical use. Do not go too dense (more than approx 25-30 kg/m3?) as it's a waste of money. Warmcell is not included as generic BR solution so you would need indepependent test data for use in wall and floor of the same construction.

Give it a few months and you will sit down and let a big sigh out of you and then have an enormous smile when you see what you have achieved. Well done.

I was in the 'van last night getting some things - noticed that without the de-humidifier running how damp and cold it felt. Hard to believe we lasted 18 months in there.

Rs45? Look for robust details or a general spec online

@NickfromwalesThe mental image of you standing bollock naked under one of those would put a sane man off his lunch.

here you go

we went for the same crosswater fittings in all four of our showers and they are brilliant, I wanted to cut some costs by going for something cheaper but I am gald I didn't win that argument. There customer service is excellent too we had an issue with on of the diverter boxes and they helped the plumber fix it and get it working over the phone in 20 minutes and have said they will replace it straight away if it causes a problem again.

Agree with the sun pipe for the landing. I am not sure you are allowed a step on the half landing. Design for two straight flights of 7 steps, i.e. make your stair well slightly bigger. you don't want to be finding out at build time that it's impossible to fit a staircase that complies with building regs. You will need 13 or 14 steps depending on your floor to floor height. Staying with the stairs, check your local regulations. they would not comply in Scotland as we have to allow a bit of free wall space at the top and bottom of a flight to allow for adding a stair lift in the future. Make en-suite 2 bigger, or abandon it. I am only seeing one "door" into the ground floor, unless that's patio doors or similar in the sun room or lounge. I would want a normal single door from the dining area out to the garden, otherwise you will be cursing when the kitchen bins need emptying. Building regs will probably require more than one door as well.

Any good? https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.njug.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/V1-Positioning-Colour-Coding-Issue-8.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjFwrfUmfrOAhXWFsAKHfC6BRQQFggkMAI&usg=AFQjCNFhzY5fDIDEo-f-Sz3OF0NYGinxqg&sig2=z_13syNdkUh07MYp1niIug

Let's see a pic then Peter...

It works by MAGIC and runs on wishful thinking. Current missus steps under it and the one in the video steps out. All remote controlled. With any luck there'll be a mute button. I wish!

In his drawers!

I need to get one of those for work! Where do you keep her in the office?

Just a few thoughts Russ. Site/planning issues first. 1. It appears the house is very close to the boundary at the back. There don't appear to be any houses there today, but I think it might break local overlooking guidelines. Once built it would make it very difficult to build the land behind. It may be that this land can never be built on. You could lose all the windows on that elevation of you have to. The kitchen and bedrooms could just have windows to the side. 2. If everything is just one storey high I would consult the planners as to their attitude to a two storey building, even a low one. Design issues - 1. You have some big spans there, I think it will be ok with steel between the end of the lounge wall and back of the kitchen. You might need to go to 300mm joists or 400mm centres. This will affect the height of your ridge. Assuming you use posi-joists or similar. These should make routing services no problem. 2. Ensuite 2 is above a window in the kitchen, routing the waste down might be difficult. You will have a bump on the wall that will ideally be hidden behind kitchen cabinets. 3. Ensuite 2 is too small. It might physically work but will feel miserable to be in. I would aim for 1.2m wide. You can easily lose some width in the bedroom. 4. Not sure about the kitchen design. If you look at the sight lines, as people come in the front door they will be looking directly at the kitchen sink. I would probably move units to where the table is and use the table to split the kitchen from sun room.Then the table would be what you see coming in the door. 5. Maybe consider a skylight/sunpipe for the upstairs landing, it will be very dark. I do like how efficiently you have got all the rooms off it. 6. The staircase will likely need support on the half landing. It may be easiest to box it in.This would then allow an extra cupboard downstairs which would probably be handy. 7. I've never seen a veranda like that, is it frameless? As drawn it looks nice. But why put it round the back against the fence? 8. Depending on the height of the fence and planning issues, the back windows seem to look out against the fence. Good luck with the plans.